Sand City's Independent Marketplace ends Thursday, but a more permanent marketplace will take its place

Organizers are planning a fiery farewell for the last Independent Marketplace in Sand City on Thursday, but from the ashes of that event will spring a newer, more-permanent marketplace.

When Thursday's event is over, construction crews will get busy on a six- to eight-month project that will transform the ground floor of the Sand City landmark into a permanent marketplace that will incorporate the best of the Independent Marketplace vendors and be open daily instead of once a month.

But before that happens organizers plan to pull out all the stops for Thursday's final marketplace, which started 10 months ago in April 2012.

"This will be a good one, this one will blow people's minds," said Patrick Orosco, of the development firm Orosco Group and one of the principal five of the crew that put on the event each month and includes Maya Freedman and Brian Conway of Freeway Productions, jack-of-all-trades Ezekiel Fickle and Todd Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen in Pacific Grove. "We have some things we have been saving and we're at the point where we can say, 'OK, use it or lose it,' so we're going to throw everything at this last one and make sure it goes off with some fireworks."

In addition to the usual vendors selling hot food, produce, flowers and plants, arts and crafts, fashions and so forth, Thursday's finale, which has a Valentine's "Burnin' Love" theme, will feature a number of intriguing and entertaining options, including fire dancers, aerialists, acro yoga / dance jam DJs, a harpist, flash mob dance session, Twister contest, Thai massage and the appearance of a strange musical/graphic instrument called The Space Pallette.

So if the Independent Marketplace was such a success, why stop now?

"The marketplace was initially conceived as an experiment more to bring people together, to not feature any one thing," said Orosco. "Our tagline was 'An experiment in food, art, drinks, culture' that was summed up in trying to identify a community in the Monterey Bay that previously existed in little cliques that had a commonality but hadn't been given a venue to get together and share their ideas and celebrate the fact that we're living in a phenomenal area and find crossover in some of the ethics and points of inspiration that they were moved by."

Orosco said organizers quickly found out what worked and what didn't, what vendors worked and others not so much and what things they wanted to do more of.

After 10 months of the once-a-month marketplaces, Orosco said they found that the "hypothesis was true," that people would get together and participate in a local and locally sourced event with a spirit of collaboration.

"That theme of collaboration was essentially what we were trying to inspire and what we're intending to follow up with the permanent iteration of the Independent Marketplace, which will carry its name in a bricks-and-mortar, seven-days-a-week format." he said.

Orosco said the permanent marketplace will feature kiosks, stalls and shops featuring vendors identified as "Independent All-Stars" and patterned after successful marketplaces, such as the Ferry Building in San Francisco or the Melrose Market in Seattle.

It will also include some on-site production spaces, such as for bakers and chocolatiers, plus spaces for visitng or emerging and first-time vendors who can prove their mettle.

The existing art gallery/event space next to Post No Bills will also be utilized for a variety of events, such as pop-up dinners, lectures, art shows and specially curated events.

"The one really exciting thing for myself and my family is that Sand City is such a phenomenal venue for this type of thing to occur because of the availability of water, because of the cooperative spirit of the community, City Council and other leaders, what we're seeing in one building has every opportunity to grow and populate the entire district," Orosco said.

"Ideally, as these vendors grow from home-made operations, maybe some of them will become too big and have an opportunity to move into a space directly across the street."

Orosco said he is excited about the prospects for the new permanent marketplace.

"This phenomenon of urban transformation, of communities organizing and growing and taking root, has been something that has occured in virtually every major city, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco to various parts of New York City, L.A., Detroit," he said. "It's fun to see that Monterey, which has a regional population base, is getting to a point where it can experience some of the more dynamic and progressive cultural outlets that we find in larger areas."

When asked how he was feeling about the end of the old market and the emergence of the new one, Orosco sounded optimistic.

"I'm far less nervous than I was in 2012 when we started the Independent Marketplace. Now we have a pretty good sense that what we're doing is more than just a crazy idea," he said. "I'm so excited I can't sit still, and at the same time humbled by the numerous talented people who continue to emerge."

In addition to all of the above, here's what one can expect from Thursday's finale, whose featured nonprofit partners are Big Sur Fire Brigade and Mid Coast Fire Brigade:

· Entertainment curated by M-PYRE, the regional Burning Man group, which will have a camp setup and feature three performances of the Celsius Maximus Fire Show on the outdoor plaza.

· One Billion Rising will stage a practice "flash mob" dance session in the Independent Gallery for its planned Feb. 14 international flash mob against domestic violence.

· The Space Pallette will amaze those who use this unique instrument to create simultaneous music and visuals in the Kid's Corner. It is a musical and graphical instrument that lets you play music and paint visuals simultaneously by waving your hands in the holes of a wood frame, sort of like having multiple three-dimensional mouse pads in mid-air. spacepalette.com.

· Hot food will be dished up by Uncie Ro's Pizza, Mundaka (Carmel's popular Spanish tapas restaurant), Happy Girl Kitchen, Carmel Valley Ranch and the newly opened La Balena Italian restaurant in from Carmel will make its debut.

· Manresa Bakery, part of the Michelin-starred Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos that showcases the inventive cuisine of chef-proprietor David Kinch, will be making its Marketplace debut.GO!